Reality Check
by Kit-for-Kat
Summary: Sora's journey has taken an unexpected detour when he finds himself stranded on the most bizarre world yet. With the Gummi Ship stolen, Donald and Goofy unable to talk, magic on the fritz, and psychiatrists and the US Army chasing after him, how on Earth is he supposed to get home? Warning: Violence/Blood [Disclaimer: All KH characters belong to Square Enix and Disney.]


**It's been a while since I posted anything here. I have an explanation, I discovered that I had the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 remixes all this time and have been bingeing the dang thing for weeks now to the point that my brain decided it wanted to be creative again. **

**So, here it is! A new story! Hope you fellow KH fans enjoy! **

* * *

A red emergency light flashed on and off again inside the interior of the Gummi Ship, painting the entire room in red for a second before returning to the white metal panels. An ear-piercing and drawn out siren shrieked from every speaker, barely drowning out the noise of the bangs, squeals, and popping as metal from the outside was being ripped away piece by piece.

Sora fought hard against the pull of the Gummi Ship, the controls slippery in his sweaty hands. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it was futile. His own puny strength incapable of preventing the will of nature. Still, it was against _his _nature not to fight; so, fight he did.

"It's tearing the ship apart!" The high-pitched, nasal voice of his feathered friend stated the obvious. His wing like hands flying over the buttons on the dashboards control panel as if one of them was bound to stop this invisible force from taking them.

"We're getting slammed!" A much lower and less annoying voice of his other canine friend, added. Busy defending them with their weapon systems. The sense of panic high in the room.

Somehow though, amid the chaos, a calm thought broke through.

_Is this really it? . . . After everything we've done to get this far? Is this really where our story ends?_

Sora felt his resolve weakening. His fingers slowly loosening from the controls as fatigue suddenly swept through him. He watched numbly at their world shrinking away as darkness swallowed them.

An image of his two best friends faces flashed in his mind.

_Riku . . . Kairi. I never got the chance to find you guys. _

There were a lot of things he had left undone. There were still a few worlds that needed to be locked. They still needed to meet the King. Stop Xemnas from completing Kingdom Hearts.

Maybe. . . that wasn't his battle though. Maybe he really wasn't the hope everyone had been searching for. Maybe Riku. . . or rather, Xehanort's Heartless, had been right and he was just the delivery boy of the keyblade to the true hero that would wield it.

If that was the case, then it really wouldn't matter if he was lost to the darkness.

Sora wondered what it would feel like. Would it hurt? Or would it be like sleeping? Would he remember everything? Who he was? The friends he made.

He couldn't quite remember his time as a Heartless himself, but it couldn't be much different. He had remembered Kairi. Had sought to find her even in that form. So surely, he would remember everything now, right?

Of course he would. They had made a promise.

_"We may never meet again. But we'll never forget each other."_

No matter where they were, their hearts would bring them together again. As long as he believed in the light; the darkness would never defeat him. Because even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you.

Sora felt strength returning as he thought of the memory of those words being recited to him a long time ago, his hands reaching for the control sticks again. Instead of fighting them this time, he pushed them forward, sending the Gummi Ship deeper into the pitch-black abyss. The last of the world beyond, fading away.

"Sora! What are you doing?" Donald squalled in his ear, grabbing onto his shoulders and trying to yank him away. Sora resisted, pressing his weight against the controllers. The lights flickered, struggling to remain on. The siren stuttered and warped before shutting off completely, the lights following thereafter. Plunging them into complete darkness.

For a while, the only sound Sora could hear was his own breathing. He felt a strange squeezing, pulling sensation of his body, his chest constricting with the urge to panic. He tried calling out to his friends, hoping they were still with him, Donald's hands were no longer holding him, but as he opened his mouth, no sound emerged. Even the feeling of the seats cushions beneath him weren't there. What scared him the most though was that he couldn't even hear his own heart beating anymore.

_Was this what a Nobody felt like with no heart?_ Sora thought, suddenly understanding the need and desperation that drove the organization members.

Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like minutes. There was no telling how long they had been there. It could've been weeks. Months. Years. Or even a millennium. Time felt irrelevant in a place where your existence was irrelevant. Along with his thoughts. His emotions, and his memories. Like a baby in a womb. Nothing really mattered.

And then, he was back.

Sora blinked and found himself sitting in the drivers chair again, in the Gummi Ship, his hands still pushing the controls forward, and Donald's hands still squeezing his shoulders as if they never moved.

Sora opened his mouth, then closed it again like a fish out of water, his brain too disoriented to form proper words. His body felt like it had been torn up into little pieces and then glued back together. In fact, that was probably what happened.

From somewhere in the back he heard Goofy vomiting and Donald weakly asking if he was okay.

It took several moments for Sora to process the situation at hand. Their ship was still moving. Hurtling at highspeeds towards a green and blue world he didn't recognize. Then his view was obscured by orange flames and he realized with alarm that they were on fire!

"Everyone, hold on!" He shouted as he jerked back the controls, trying to slow their descent. The flames dispersed but they were still falling uncontrollably fast towards what appeared to be a densely forested land.

"Donald, hit the emergency landing button!"

Sora wasn't sure if he had been heard over a new set of alarms starting up, trying to warn them they were about to crash but out of his peripherals, Sora saw a winged hand slap down on a red button in the center of the control panel seconds before everything became a blurry, violent, series of screen shots and deafening noises. His body went airborne for a split second, then landed with a shock of pain that stole the breath from him.

Everything went silent after that apart from the soft ringing in the distance.

For a while, Sora did not move. Had no desires to. He just laid there wondering why there was so much pain. It wasn't like pain was a stranger to him. He had been thrown across a room. Beaten with a sword twice a man's size and maimed by a creature with teeth and claws as sharp as daggers.

Yet, he couldn't recall a moment in his life he had felt pain such as this.

He knew it wouldn't stop though, until he moved. He had a bottle of potion in his pocket that would surely take this away.

Sora twitched his fingers experimentally, relieved that this simple move didn't worsen anything. Then, carefully, he slid his hand down to his side. This sent a sharp jolt into his neck and he groaned a little but it didn't hinder him from digging into his pocket and taking out the palm sized, green bottle.

He opened it with his teeth and spat out the cork before raising the bottle to his lips, his hands trembling so much it was difficult not to spill it everywhere. He chugged down the liquid until there wasn't anything left to chug, then let his head drop onto the dirty ground and sucked in ragged, whistling breaths as he waited for it to work.

It only took seconds for him to realize it wasn't going to do anything.

_Why isn't it doing anything?_ He thought, frustrated. _Maybe one isn't enough. I think I got another in my other pocket. _

His left arm was even harder to move, taking twice as long to slide it down to his other pocket and finding nothing but glass shards. The bottle had broken during the crash, his pants damp now with the liquid.

Sora growled, smacking the ground with his fist and whimpering at the pain that caused.

_Maybe Donald or Goofy have one._

Slowly, Sora got his hands and knees beneath him and pushed himself up. He raised his head, opening his eyes and found himself staring at the remains of the Gummi Ship. The windows were shattered and bright colored gummi blocks were strewn everywhere like confetti. Several trees were leaning and sporting large gashes from where they skidded through them, and one was on fire, plumes of black smoke swirling into the night sky above. Despite it all though, a little red emergency light continued to stubbornly flash on and off from inside.

"Donald? Goofy?" Sora croaked, his voice but a whisper. He couldn't see them anywhere.

Sora tried to rise to his feet and about keeled over at a particularly sharp pain in his abdomen. He leaned against the trunk of a tree, its bark rough against his back but he paid that no mind as he peeled his shirt up to reveal a concerningly large gash in his left side and a hot, red liquid seeping out of it, soaking up at the hem of his pants. Something that's never happened to his body before.

"Oh god." Sora whispered to himself as he stared in horror at the wound. "Oh god. Oh god. That can't be good."

He tried to wipe it away with his hand, hoping against reason that it was just paint or something, but even as he did more of it kept oozing out of the hole in his body.

"What is this? Where is this coming from?" He asked the empty air. "Why won't it stop? Please, stop!"

He fought hyperventilation. A copper stench filling his nose and making his head dizzy, spots appearing in his eyes. He thought for sure he was going to faint and for a moment he didn't mind that. Then, he remembered his friends were out here probably in the same amount of pain and he told himself to pull it together.

"N-Need to find them. Need to get help."

Lowering his shirt, he discovered he felt significantly better now that he couldn't see the wound. _Out of sight out of mind,_ he guessed, taking a deep breath and pushing himself away from the tree. Every step felt like needles at the bottom of his feet, crawling up his legs and back like ants. He took breaks against trees often and more than once considered just going to sleep, but he forced himself to keep going. Repeating to himself over and over that Donald and Goofy needed his help, fearful that he would forget this important fact.

"Donald?" He called out, slightly louder this time. "Goofy?"

Nothing ever answered his calls and that worried him more than anything. They had to be alive. They _had _to be.

He wouldn't know what to do if they weren't.

Sora's eyes scanned the woods around him, each direction looking the exact same, the wrecked ship no longer in sight. He couldn't remember where he had come from or how many turns he had taken and he realized with some contempt for himself that he managed to get lost. What good would finding help be if he couldn't even find the ship?

He pushed onwards, wondering how big these woods were. Civilization had never been too far from their landing sights. Maybe he would be lucky enough to find a magician. Or at least somebody who knew a cure spell.

He wrapped his arms around himself as he felt a sudden chill seep into his muscles yet, the trees never rustled from a breeze. He was cold. Why was he cold? His clothes were magic. They protected him from even the harshest weather conditions and yet he felt like he swallowed a mouthful of ice cream as the cold spread through his insides.

"Why isn't anything working?" He muttered, angrily.

He had to pick up his feet a little as he waded through a deeper patch of leaves. Never had he been to a world so cluttered before. Even under the leaf piles there were hidden twigs and stones and roots sticking out of the ground. It was a major tripping hazard!

Then, the leaves were gone and he was standing on a flat surface again. Sora looked down, followed the long strip of black with yellow broken lines in the center with his eyes till it disappeared past a hill, then glanced in the other direction to find it continued the same way.

It took his brain a lot longer than it should have to comprehend he was standing on a road. A man-made road that would hopefully lead him to civilization and to help.

Help. . .

_Why do I need help again?_

He stood there, dumbly. Wracking his brain for an explanation as to why he was standing on a randomly, desolate road in the middle of the woods. The answer felt just out of his reach, yet, the more he tried to focus on it the farther the thought fled.

He was so tired. He wanted to sit down. Close his eyes for a few minutes. Just a few. Then, he could better concentrate on what he was trying to do.

Sora was about to walk off the road to do just that when he heard something low and rumbly in the distance. Eyebrows furrowed, he looked to his left down the road and saw a pair of white dots, glowing on the horizon. The noise reminded him of an animal growl, but what animal, he couldn't think of.

Sora pondered this for a while until the growl grew so loud he was feeling it in his feet through the ground. He looked up again and saw the lights were much closer this time. Whatever it was. It was fast.

The word came to him right then.

_Heartless. . ._

That had to be why he was here. He had come to lock this world from the darkness that leaked inside it.

Sinking into his familiar fighting stance, ignoring the brutal pain in his side, Sora opened his hands and in a flash of dazzling light, his most treasured possession and reliant weapon appeared into his palms, his fingers curling comfortably around the handle like it had been made specifically for him.

He grinned with anticipation despite he knew he was in no shape to be fighting anything, but seeing how speedy it was, he knew there wouldn't be any running from it either. He waited for the right moment to strike, watching between narrowed lashes as its eyes grew larger the closer it got. It's eyes, so bright he had to squint. It's large, dark body barely visible past the glare. He wasn't too far gone to miss the irony of a shadow having such bright eyes.

Sora didn't move till the last possible moment. Then, he jumped, swinging his keyblade above his head to strike and felt a heaviness drag him back down to the ground just as the heartless came crashing into him.

Sora felt his body go tumbling overtop it and landing heavily on the ground like a sack of potatoes dropped.

Time stopped for a few seconds. His eyes staring blankly up into the night sky, his mind sluggishly trying to catch up to the present. He didn't understand. If there was one thing he was good at, it was being resilient during a fight. He knew how to get up after being kicked down and yet, the last thing he wanted to do now was get up.

"Owww. . ." He heard his voice in the distance, like a sad whistle from a slowly deflating balloon. He wouldn't have known it was his if it weren't for the air he felt leaving his mouth.

Sora heard something screech and he thought for certain that the heartless returned to finish him off, but instead he saw a human woman's face appear in his vision, looking down on him with concern.

"Oh my god. Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you until the last minute and I tried to swerve but then you jumped and . . . and, oh Lord, you're bleeding! Did I do this? Oh, please don't die. I can't afford to go to jail. Bill! Bill, call 911. Call an ambulance. Call _anybody_! Come on, don't just stand there . . ."

Sora lost interest in her words around then. His eyes refocusing on the stars past her head, his mind wondering if his world was somewhere up there. If Kairi was somewhere up there, looking back at him.

Something slapped his cheeks and he groaned, his eyes blinking in confusion as another strange face appeared, annoyingly blocking his view of the sky.

"Hey, hey son. You're going to be okay. Just stay awake. We're getting you help."

_When did Beast get here? _Sora thought, staring at the strip of brown hair around his mouth. _And did he shave? _

"Bill, what if he sues us?" The woman's voice returned.

"He's just a kid, honey."

"Then his parents will sue us!"

Sora blocked out the voices as the urge to fall asleep overcame him again and this time, he let it. His eyes slowly drifted closed. He felt something slapping his cheeks but he ignored it this time. For the first time in his life, favoring the darkness that encompassed him.


End file.
